World of Warcraft designer: Blizzard ‘shot itself in the foot’ with daily quest delimiting

World of Warcraft’s lead game designer Tom Chilton admits Blizzard made a mistake removing the limit on daily quests.

“We shot ourselves in the foot when we removed the limit on the daily quests that you could do. So there was a pressure to maximise everything, and that really leads to burn out,” Chilton PCGamesN at gamescom.

Chilton had other criticisms for his own efforts, noting that World of Warcraft’s base design funnels players away from a lot of exploratory gameplay and focuses them on ticking off goals.

“I think we’ve really trained players over the years to say ‘If there’s no quest or mark on the map that tells me to go in that cave, I’m wasting my time,'” he said.

The Timeless Isle zone, which is full of events happening in different places and at various times, is intended to counteract this.

Chilton wasn’t only negative; in the full article he speaks on the success of World of Warcraft’s pet battles, which were poorly-received at first but are now quite popular.